Shubh Mukherjee talks about the love his film Kahwa has been getting globally

In 2011, Shubh Mukherjee released his first Hindi directorial Shakal Pe Mat Ja, starring veteran actors Saurabh Shukla and Raghubir Yadav.

Post that, he switched to ad and documentary filmmaking, producing many acclaimed projects for big brands.

Now, 13 years later, he is returning to fictional storytelling with the hard-hitting film Kahwa based on a true story.

The film has been doing the round of international film festivals, receiving unanimous praise and recently, it was screened at the Rome Prisma Film Awards, where it was one of the finalists. 

During his time doing documentary filmmaking, Shubh experienced a lot of distressed places first hand like the borders of Somalia and the political unrest in Kashmir.

Kahwa tells the true story of the aftermath of the encounter of militant Burhan Wani in Kashmir, that led to the longest single spell of curfew in the state and features actors Gunjan Utreja and Bashir Lone, and interestingly Shubh experienced that situation first hand as he was there in Kashmir during that time.

The film has already did the rounds internationally at film festivals in Los Angeles, Istanbul, London, Chennai and it was also screened at Cannes in May this year. 

While he is nervous about returning to fictional films after over a decade, Shubh is confident about his film and the international recognition it has recieved just makes his belief stronger.

“It was quite challenging to make this film as it deals with a very sensitive subject. The film has been shot in Kashmir and while it has become easier to shoot in the state today, with the kind of subject we were dealing with, it got a little tricky. Also, ours is an independent film and we don't have any big producer backing it. Yet, we were ready to risk it all and the kind of love and appreciation it has got across all the continents, adds to our confidence in our film,” he shares, adding that Kahwa’s trailer will be released for the Indian audience this month.